Interactive signage and data gathering techniques

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods employing unique optics, combined with data gathering techniques that capture user interaction in the system at the point of engagement and point of entry. This facilitates gathering real time data on users, customers or other people during engagement with elements of the system to provide analytics in real time.

CLAIM OF BENEFIT AND PRIORITY

This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application62/392,439 filed on May 31, 2016 entitled INTERACTIVE SIGNAGE AND DATAGATHERING TECHNIQUES, the teachings of which are incorporated herein byreference as if specifically set forth below, and is a continuation ofUnited States Patent Application serial number 15/731,334 filed on May26, 2017, entitled INTERACTIVE SIGNAGE AND DATA GATHERING TECHNIQUES.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates to signage for industry, and more specificallyto digital signage that provides interactivity for users or customers ofmodalities that make use of the signage. More particularly, thisdisclosure relates to digital signage, and ancillary or connectedmachines, products, services and advertising, for example, and allowsfor data gathering and data reduction for all aspects of theinteractivity or interactions with the signage.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

For almost two decades there has been a migration of advertising spendaway from broadcast media to other forms of advertising. This is largelydue to the on-demand nature of television viewing which allows viewersto fast forward through advertising messages. Today, users and customersare continually inundated during their shopping and traveling experiencewith the myriad of products and services that are available for purchasein stores, in vending machines, and in areas such as casinos andprotected environments that require secure commerce, e-commerce andother user or customer interactions with the environments. Heretofore,there has not existed in the art an integrated and coherent platform bywhich advertisers and sellers of the products and services can reachcustomers to efficiently provide their products and services, as well asto gather relevant information about the customers purchasing them.There simply has not been a way, nor have the modalities existed, toefficiently and rapidly facilitate and gather meaningful and readilyusable real time data on people, for example, their identities ages,genders, ethnicities, dwell times, emotional recognition, and securitythreats.

Advertisers are therefore constantly looking for other ways to gain theattention of their audiences and have shifted the limited availablemarketing to other forms of advertising. The Internet has been theprincipal benefactor of this shift in recent years, not only because ithas become the shopping mall of the future, but because it offers uniqueabilities to track consumers and develop a comprehensive database aboutboth the general and specific buying behaviors of customers. Moreover,the focus on capturing the "out of home" shopper has also grownconsiderably, and the desire to grab the attention of consumers whenthey are not at home and, ideally, closer to a location where they mightbe influenced by a call to action, is increasing dramatically inattempts to capture these spending opportunities. In store advertisingis attractive to advertisers that have consumer brands because theiraudience will receive the advertising or promotion at a location wherethe consumer can make a decision to purchase. This makes the advertisingimpression delivered at retail outlets more impactful and, therefore,more lucrative. Nondigital forms of advertising such as shelf hangersand floor mats are common in retail, but digital advertising, includingsignage, is not. This limits the abilities of the retailers to capturethe attention of consumers in real time, and these lost opportunitiesresult in lost sales that cannot be recaptured.

Many industries suffer from these and other lost opportunities as aresult of the inadequate exploitation of digital signage, and the lackof hardware, software and other implementations that could provide asolution to this problem. For example, in the beverage and foodindustries, beverage, food and freezer units have transparent glass thatretailers are loathe to block with advertising promotions. In order toturn this glass real estate into a lucrative platform there would haveto be a technology that would allow for advertising (preferably digital)while maintaining the transparency of the platform, thereby allowing forproducts to be visible simultaneous to the advertising promotion. Thiscurrently does not exist in the art.

In the alcoholic beverage retail environment, for example liquor storesare continuously plagued by theft at retail. Higher end spirits and wineare particularly impacted, and the industry's response in past has beensimply to lock up expensive product at the retail locations. Thus,customers wishing to purchase product behind lock up have to signal anattendant to gain access to the locked cabinet. While this is a logicalway to deal with the theft problem, the unintended consequence of thistactic is that sales velocity (the rate at which product is sold atretail) is enormously and catastrophically impacted. Today, there doesnot exist an effective monitoring system that allows the industry tomanage this problem.

Similarly, the casino industry all over the world is exploding and alongwith this nearly unmanageable growth, there has developed a series ofchallenges that casino operators have to navigate. On the regulatoryside of these challenges, virtually all casino operators in the US arerequired to keep and maintain a "Disassociated Persons" (DAP). This DAPList is a record of all gamblers who have enrolled themselves in aprogram administered state by state for problem gamblers that grant theauthorities the right to remove them from any casino property. If a DAPlist enrollee gains access to a property only to gamble and lose moneythe operator is required to return the funds lost as well as face finesfor not enforcing the DAP list. In addition to the regulatory threat ofDAP list persons on the property, casino operators routinely face riskwith respect to known criminals, banned individuals, or persons thatlocal or federal law enforcement may be looking for. Today, casinosinvest many millions of dollars in state of the art security systemsthat cover every inch of the property with CCTV as well as other formsof access control and security. The camera feeds are analyzed againstphysical photos of the individuals that the casino might be looking forand when a person of interest is observed the casino will act quickly toremove that person from the property, or take whatever actions might benecessary. The whole system has a weak link, that is, the humandependency for implementation of these measures. A security person notonly has to be able to sift through multiple live video feeds but alsobe able to remember the pictures of what could be multiple individualsthat are on the watch list. The system is prone to error and leads toenormous cost. Again, the art has not developed sufficient ways toaddress this problem.

In other commercial areas, for example, loyalty programs are becomingmore common in various types of retail environments. These programsgenerally work on the concept that, upon check out, a loyalty identifier(ID) is provided and associated with the sale. The retailer is providedenormous amounts of data, including buying characteristics, brandalignment, and cross reference data points, during this process whichcould be enormously useful to the retailer. The primary problem withthis approach is that the data is not correctly, efficiently or timelyprovided, and the identity or affinities of the customer is notestablished, until the person checks out. With no identity establisheduntil the person checks out there is no opportunity to market productsor services to that person while they are in store and have the currentopportunity inclination to make additional or other buying decisions.

In all of the aforementioned retail, entertainment and other publicenvironments, the world is becoming less secure. The most dangerousspaces, at least from a terrorism point of view, are locations that areopen to the public as gathering places or are general hubs of activity.Transport hubs, sports venues, shopping malls, and public squares arejust a few examples of locations that represent risk to the generalpublic and opportunity for terrorists. There is an enormous publicdialogue about how to make these locations more secure while stillallowing freedom of assembly and movement. CCTV networks are a criticalpart of the solution but have serious restrictions. As mentioned above,CCTV camera networks and systems involve human dependency issues as wellas an angle of attack issue. The former relates to the fact that humanbeings must monitor video feedback from many different cameras, and thelatter is a result of the positioning of many of these cameras in highpostings that may be looking down on people and, therefore, unable toclearly observe and record their faces. A solution that would augmentCCTV and provide a more scale-able way to scan crowds is desperatelyrequired.

These and other issues and problems have not heretofore been addressedor solved in the art.

SUMMARY

The aforementioned problems are solved, and long-felt needs met, by thepresent principles by the provision of a system employing unique optics,combined with data gathering techniques that capture user interaction inthe system at the point of engagement and point of entry. Thisfacilitates gathering real time data on users, customers or other peopleduring engagement with elements of the system to provide analytics inreal time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The proposed method and apparatus is best understood from the followingdetailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings. The drawings include the following figures briefly describedbelow:

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary architecture of a system for implementingproduct sales from interactive vending machines employing the presentprinciples.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are schematic views of a vending machine of the presentprinciples which employ transparent LCD layers and touch screens.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow chart of a mode for enticing individuals toengage a system and to allow for data gathering and data analyticsemploying the present principles.

It should be understood that the drawing(s) are for purposes ofillustrating the concepts of the disclosure and is not necessarily theonly possible configuration for illustrating the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The present description illustrates the principles of the presentdisclosure. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the artwill be able to devise various arrangements that, although notexplicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of thedisclosure and are included within its scope.

All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended foreducational purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principlesof the disclosure and the concepts contributed by the inventor(s) tofurthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitationto such specifically recited examples and conditions.

Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, andembodiments of the disclosure, as well as specific examples thereof, areintended to encompass both structural and functional equivalentsthereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include bothcurrently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in thefuture, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function,regardless of structure.

Thus, for example, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat the block diagrams presented herein represent conceptual views ofillustrative circuitry embodying the principles of the disclosure.Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams,state transition diagrams, pseudocode, and the like represent variousprocesses which may be substantially represented in computer readablemedia and so executed by a computer or processor, whether or not suchcomputer or processor is explicitly shown.

The functions of the various elements shown in the figures may beprovided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardwarecapable of executing software in association with appropriate software.When provided by a processor, the functions may be provided by a singlededicated processor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality ofindividual processors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, explicituse of the term "processor" or "controller" should not be construed torefer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and mayimplicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP)hardware, read only memory (ROM) for storing software, random accessmemory (RAM), and nonvolatile storage.

Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included.Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only. Theirfunction may be carried out through the operation of program logic,through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control anddedicated logic, or even manually, the particular technique beingselectable by the implementer as more specifically understood from thecontext.

Any element expressed, or which ultimately might be construed, as ameans or step for performing a specified function is intended toencompass any way of performing that function including, for example, a)a combination of circuit elements that performs that function or b)software in any form, including, firmware, microcode or the like,combined with appropriate circuitry for executing that software toperform the function. It is intended that the functionalities providedby the various recited elements will combined and brought together in amanner understood by those skilled in the art, and by any means or stepsthat can provide those functionalities, and their equivalents.

Referring to FIG. 1 , an exemplary system architecture 10 of thisdisclosure implements a cloud-based analytical environment 20 thatallows users, customers of other people 30 (hereinafter referred to as"users") to interact with a vending machine 40 , for example, so thatultimately the users 30 can purchase products from the vending machine40. It will be appreciated that other products, or indeed services,could be sold to users 30 from machine 40. It will also be appreciatedthat while the analytical environment 20 is shown as being cloud-based,this environment could also be implemented in a selfcontained networksuch as a LAN, WAN or through elements of the Internet in combinationwith the Internet, the cloud or other elements of a computer-basednetwork.

Vending machine 40 is equipped with the appropriate modality to interactwith the Internet, either through a wireless connection 50 or through anEthernet or equivalent type of communication bus. Other communicationsdevices, for example a screen, television, or other type of displaydevice 60 and a camera 70, may also be used to allow users 30 tointeract in the system 10, and are also able to communicate through awireless device 80 or other communication bus. The screen or television60 and camera 70 allow user profiles, to be described in more detailbelow, to be gathered and processed as the user engages in the shoppingand purchasing process, and further facilitates data gatheringopportunities for the system 10. The users may optionally be givenaccess to a variety of apps 90 which also facilitate and allowinteraction in the system 10 with the cloud-based environment 20.

In accordance with some of the principles of the disclosure, and asmentioned above, the architecture of FIG. 1 provides solutions to theproblems in the art regarding identifing and seeing people interactingwithin range of the vending machine 40, camera 70, which for examplecould be a 3D camera, or with other particular devices in theenvironment of architecture 10. The system thereby provides, forexample, demographic tracking of users' age, race, gender, and othersalient demographic data. Facial Identification is provided which willallow the system to identify users that have appeared before, orinteracted with, as well as facial recognition wherein the user opts-into be recognized by the system.

More subjective data points may be quantified by the systemarchtitecture of FIG. 1 , for example, the emotional satisfaction of auser which may be tracked during interaction with the system todetermine whether the user is happy when viewing an ad or content.Engagement tracking, that is whether a user's eyes are engaged with thecontent or looking away may be tracked, and the number of viewers andthe level of engagement that they have with the platform may bequantified. More simple analytics may be gathered, for example, thecounting of people that come in "site" of the system, which in and ofitself is a very useful set of data that may be provided to vendors oradvertisers, for example. By providing the ability to gather the abovementoned data, and indeed other types of date, the system of the presentdisclosure provides an efficient and cost-effetive tool to developargeted content or advertising based on any of the tracking categoriesdelineated herein.

In a preferred aspect of the disclosure, the Microsoft Azure™ (trademarkowned by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, WA) is used to implementthe cloud architecture 20. Within the cloud 20, the principles of thedisclosure provide for facial recognition processing and data reduction100, and the modality to implement content 110 so that a designer of acustom system of the present principles can provide both interactive andnon-interactive content groups. This may allow for sophisticatedmulti-screen spanning, which will allow the content and touch to spanunlimited large form factor screen devices 60. Morever,it is possible totracks at least six users at a time during facial recognition 100 tomeasure their engagement, emotion, demographic profile (age, race,gender, etc.) as they interact with the system. Additionally, the system10 is provided with cloud services 120 that contains the necessarycomponents and data infrastructure to gather and persist demographic andusage data into the cloud databases that will store the data, and storethe analytically reduced paramaters that may be acquired from the dataaccording to the particular needs of the advertiser or vendor, forexample.

As will be further appreciated, the system design provides the necessaryengineered solutions for an analytics module 130 to engage in faulttolerant and properly scaled local services that are ultimately engagedin the cloud services module 120. This will allow for synchronizedcontent of the end devices, and the proper gathering of analytics fromthese endpoints by the analytics module 130. Thsi will also allow forthe performance of proper facial recogntions and demopraphic profiles inreal time. To ensure a secure web portal and safe content managementsystem and reporting, the architecture 20 is preferably hosted on aMicrosoft Office 365 SharePoint™ (trademark also owned the the MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond, WA host server). The archtecture advantageouslyallows campaign and day-parting of advertsing based on demographicprofile.

In order to properly interface with the cloud 20 and design customizedsystems to satisfy the needs of any advertiser, vendor or entity thatrequires the data gathering capabilites and analytics of the presentdisclsoure, a backend portion 140 is provided to allow for systemdesign. Backend portion 140 radically alters the prior methodology anddelivery modality of legacy systems while capturing demographic andconsumer behavior in the finest detail. Backend portion 140 addressesmany important and salient design and feature objectives. Backendportion 140 is essentially a "what you see if what you get" (WYSIWYG)screen layout editor that provides flexibility in design and ease of usefor custom application of system 10.

For example, the software which is used to implement backend portion 140is optimized for low cost, generic computing platforms, and may utilizecommercial off the shelf systems, for example low cost Windows™(trademark owned by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, WA) embeddedoperating systems. Thus, the software use is oriented around "touch"and/or "gesture" and/or "voice recognition" interfaces, and provides formanagement of all types of digital assets, web content, structured data,and virtual objects in both 3D and 2D. The software can content managedata, assets and images from foreign systems, and is flexible in termsof size and interactive regions to display content.

Moreover, the software is multi-platform and is able to be displayed onmobile or large form factor screens or even run "headless" in facialrecognition modalities. Additionally, the software leverages the cloudinfrastructure 20 for hosting of centralized digital assets with faulttolerant and scalable cloud services that synronize content to localdevices, as mentioned above. This allows for simple, scalable and widespread content updates across multiple platform locations and endpoints. As discussed above, the backend platform 140 also provides for asophisticated content management system 150 design function and a layoutdesigner 160 function as a service or as a self-service, for example. Afacial recognition portal 170 allows the designer to interact withfacial recogition analytical functions 100 inthe cloud 20, and aninteractice analytics functions 180 also is interfacable with the cloud20. As will be appreciated, a secondary series of apps 190 may also beaccessible by operators in the backend platform to interface as isdesired with functional aspects of the features of the architecture 10in the cloud 20.

The software running the backend platform 140 may be built and presentedin Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which is a graphical subsystemfor rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF,previously known as "Avalon", was initially released as part of .NETFramework 3.0. WPF uses DirectX for vector based graphics and otheradvanced graphical capabilities. WPF employs XAML, an XML-basedlanguage, to define and link various interface elements. WPF unifies anumber of common user interface elements, such as 2D/3D rendering, fixedand adaptive documents, typography, vector graphics, runtime animation,and pre-rendered media. These elements can then be linked andmanipulated based on various events, user interactions, and databindings. WPF runtime libraries are included with all versions ofMicrosoft Windows since the advent Windows Vista™ (trademark of theMicrosoft Corporation of Redmond, WA) and Windows Server 2008™(trademark of the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, WA).

With the system architecture of FIG. 1 , a completely flexible,interactive digital signage enviorment is achieved. Demopgraphic profileoptions preferably use a 3D camera 70 to produce profiles based on age,gender and ethnicity. This demographic profile data is persisted incloud databases 120 for analytics reporting. Dwell time and emotionrecognition is also captured. Other features include campaigns based onday-parting. Custom content 110 based on a demographic profiles may alsobe persisted and displayed, and, the connection between publicengagement and analytics, happen in real time. Preferably, facialrecognition to handle both loyalty programs and security scenarios isalso achievable. Additionally, the present architecture 10 allowsrunning of a security embodiment "headless", that is, no large formfactor screen is used for running interactive digital signage. In thisembodiment, the includes 3D camera 70 for facial recognitions withspeed, accuracy and scale. Advantageously, the system may be used byindependent custom developers to enhance and extend, the systme withcustom software for purpose built applications, and may be implementedwith content management system self-management capabilities forcustomers that desire a self-serve function. Additionally, a softare asa service (SaaS) context may be implemented in accordance with theprinciples of the disclosure, which may include hosting for a monthlyfee.

Those with skill in the art will therefore appreciate that systemsdesigned in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure cangather data never before captured at the point of engagement or point ofentry. This facilitates real time gathering of data on the user, forexample their identity, age, gender, ethnicity, dwell time, emotionrecognition, and security threat. Coupled with the use of advancedoptical displays to be described in more detail below, the connectionbetween public engagement and analytics happens in real time. Theseresults have not heretofore been achieved in the art, and providesolutions to the long-felt and unfulfilled needs which exist withcurrent data gathering systems today.

As mentioned above, advanced optical displays are integrated into thesystem of FIG. 1, and may be placed on, for example, the vending machine40 to implement the data gathering and tracking features of thedisclosure. Such optical displays are known in the art, and use advancedoptical bonding techniques. An example of such an optical bondingtechnique to produce advanced displays is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No.6,961,108 Wang ET al., the teachings of which are specificallyincorporated herein by reference. Other, more recent examples of LCDdisplays incorporating advanced optical bonding techniques are found inU.S. Pat. No. 8,462,301 O'Donnell, the teachings of which are alsospecifically incorporated herein by reference.

Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, an exemplary vending machine 240 (shownparticularly in FIG. 2A), is illustrated and which may be used in thesystem of FIG. 1 as a replacement for, or in addition to, vendingmachine 40. Machine 240 has a conventional cabinet 200, in which afreezer unit, refrigerated unit, or other vending unit (not shown) ishoused, and from which products or services may be vended. As has beendescribed above, users of the machine will, in the normal course of themachine's placement in an area, public or otherwise, traverse in andaround machine 240 and may wish at some point to purchase products orservices from machine 240. It would be desirable to employ a functionwithin or around machine 240 to attract the users' attention to themachine, its products or services, to entice the users to purchase theproducts or services

In order to entice the users to the machine 240, attached thereto is anLCD panel 210 which is transparent, and which can have displayed thereonadvertisements which are attractive, evocative, and which can draw usersto the machine to advertise the machine's products or services. Suchadvertisements may be animated, computer-generated, and/or interactive.Moreover, the LCD panels 210 may further contain interactive touchscreens 220 (shown particularly in FIG. 2B), either as part of the LCDpanel 210, as portions thereof, or as separate LCD screens alsoappended, attached or otherwise associated with machine 240. The touchsensitive panels 220 may themselves contain one or more touch sensitiveicons 230 which may be interactive with the user by touching icons 230,as shown generally at 250.

Several hardware suppliers introduced transparent LCD screens in varioussizes which can be used to implement vending machine 240 with touchsensitive LCD panel 210 and touch screen 220. One such supplier is theOPTIKA Display Solutions Company of Los Angeles, CA. This technologyallows for the placement of a HD capable video screen in the form factorof a door. This technology, with adjustable transparency, has delivereddigital capabilities to cooler and freezer doors and provided wayswhereby promotions can be delivered in store to captive audiences. Withthe integration of the software CMS solution of FIG. 1 , and the vendingmachine 240, high impact visual capabilities may be delivered directlyto an in store consumer.

Thus, the present disclosure implements principles that extend beyondbasic digital signage and include HD quality video (the ability to playmultiple videos simultaneously), adjustable opacity (in order to modifytransparency based on the nature of the content) touch screenintegration ,which is a software solution that allows for the creationof unique interactive content ,day parting, which is the ability tochange the entire content set on a time of day basis, and cameraintegration, which is the ability to have an integrated camera designedto play content that is meant to entice consumers to approach andinteract with the content.

In conjunction with these important features and advantages, the system10 and vending machine 240 also allow for extensive reporting thatincludes proof of play reporting (to demonstrate to an advertiser thattheir advertising has played, and how many times it has played),demographic triggering, which is the ability to play content based uponwhat the camera sees (age, gender, etc.), and in store reportingincluding multiple criteria of reporting, key relate elements of whichinclude, for example, Total Brand Impressions, Total Brand Engagements,Total Interactions, the number and identity of unique visitors, thenumber and identity of returning visitors, the dwell time of visitors,and the race gender, age and emotional engagement of the visitors.

A primary application of system 10 and vending machine 40, 240 is thedelivery of a digital signage to a location and within a context wherenone before existed, and to make that medium a compelling way to deliverpromotions and information to consumers and users. This helps consumerpackaged goods companies deliver a "brand experience" to a locationwhere a consumer or user is in a position to act on that message. Thesystem of FIG. 1 leverages camera technology to gather meaningfulinformation in real time from the point-of-sale. This data collected notonly provides the advertisers the ability to measure campaigneffectiveness, but the brand can get invaluable insights as to thenature of their consumers and users, including buying behavior,demographics, and never before seen consumer data; all in real time. Noprior systems combine digital signage with data collection. The systemsemploying the present principles provide the ability to deliver keymessaging at point-of-sale, which is critical to the value equation.Such results have not been heretofore achieved in the art.

Referring to FIG. 3 , a flow chart illustrating the present datagathering and analytical principles is illustrated. These principlesutilize the vending machine 240 as described, but are equally usable inother applications for other uses of the touch sensitive, transparentLCD panels discussed above. Entice Mode 300 is an engaging and eyecatching content delivery function that runs until the 3D camera 70identifies one to many users that are interacting with the system 10.The 3D camera 70 does a skeletal map of the person(s) to determine theFacial Recognition 310 of the persons, and then the system switches intoEngage Mode and Skeletal Tracking 320. Once skeletal tracking identifiesthe faces camera 70 identifies, the system rapid fires pictures of thefaces (even while the people are moving) to the cloud API. The picturesare decomposed into a physics mesh and thrown away. The algorithms arerun on the meshes for facial recognition and to produce DemographicProfile 330.

If the demographic profile matches the targeted demographic by age,race, gender, etc. 335, then the standard campaign driven content isswapped out for custom content based on the demographic profile 340. Ifnot at 337, then the system reverts to Entice Mode 300. However, if theuser touches the transparent glass 350 after having been matched, thenthe Interact mode is triggered switching out from Engage Mode 320. Ifthe Facial Recognition 310 engine produces a match 360 the alerts aresent to the security system(s) 370, otherwise no match of the user isfound 380.

Then, if the demographically profiled user engages in the content bytouching 390 the transparent glass then Interact mode is triggered,switching out from Engage Mode 320 providing custom content 400 to thedemographically targeted user. After the user walks away, the systemreverts back into Entice Mode where the process starts all over again.If no action is resolved by the system 10, then the systems may timeout410, and revert to Entice Mode to start again.

It will be appreciated that other retail and public environments sufferthe data gathering, tracking and analytics problems that the presentprinciples address and solve. For example, higher end liquor, both wineand spirits, are often displayed at retail in custom point of purchasedisplay constructions. In many cases brands will create custom displaycases in order to help their product stand out and to provide a luxurybrand impression in store. In accordance with the present principles,both displays and cameras can be added to these points of purchasedisplay units to capture information on individuals accessing the unitthat is now unlocked and accessible to any and all customers. Thetechnology can be equipped to capture a photo when a customerapproaches, when a customer accesses, or when a customer grabs aproduct. A message, along with a photo, can be instantly and securelyprovided to a designated person or persons at retail. Gathering thisinformation acts as a theft deterrent, particularly since it provides asurveillance element that is "in context' directly at retail. But, inaddition to the core application, it also provides brands with instantand continuous in store data. This solution can be sold in conjunctionwith digital signage and display (a point of purchase display with a LCDscreen providing brand information) or simply as a camera solution notnecessarily tethered to display.

Machine learning has advanced enormously in the past few decades. Thesame basic technology that allows a car to drive itself is responsiblefor ancillary development in unrelated technology arenas. Machines arenow capable of interpreting data not just recording and analyzing data.The present principles will allow casino operators to deploy additionalcamera technology at eye level (ideally in conjunction with digitalsignage) to pro-actively scan crowds of people for persons that havebeen entered into the "watch list". This application, coupled withmachine learning capabilities now being developed, will provide thecasino operator with abilities to track and safeguard their casinos.Unlike other forms of facial recognition technology, the presentprinciples can track people while they are moving though public spaces.Prior imaging techniques require persons to stand at a kiosk while theirimage is captured and compared. This approach to casino security isawkward, and cannot provide the required unobtrusive tracking that isrequired in the casino environment to allow the casino to run smoothly,without disruption. The present architecture allows for scanning a crowdlooking for bodies (separating bodies from objects) and discerns wherethe face is on a given body. Once the face is captured the facialrecognition lookup can occur. This all happens in milliseconds andallows the system to scan large crowds of people in real time.

The present system uniquely merges of a security application with adigital signage application in a manner that enhances both applications.A facial recognition application that merely scans the crowd has acertain value but, when added to digital signage, the solution becomeseven more compelling. The digital signage content is created to draw theattention of the audience. A facial recognition application that isdesigned to draw attention (by applying a creative treatment to thedigital signage) will, by definition, be more effective as people aremore likely to look directly at the signage (thereby increasingefficiency and accuracy).

The current principles are well applicable to integrating emotionaldetection into a software solution. In addition to detecting suchemotional responses like smiling, frowning, the present architecturewill bring great advances in being able to sense a person who isexhibiting visual cues of stress is the promise of this technology,which has not been possible in the past.

The present principles may also be extended to the application ofplucking faces from real time video. This means that the multiple videofeeds that today are gathered and delivered in real time can be filteredthrough the present processes that will, in real time, pluck individualsout of crowds to provide alerts on possible restricted or sought afterindividuals. Such an application will be usable to analyze video fromone or many legacy or existing sources.

It can be said that with facial recognition a person's face is his orher identity. Based upon a consent and opt-in process, individualswishing to be offered promotions at point-of-sales can do so. Thepresent platform can identify an individual to offer on the spotpromotions with full knowledge of that specific customer's buyingpreferences. The customer relinquishes anonymity but receives discountsand offers in return. The result is that loyalty/identity is determinedprior to check out. This makes driving context and campaigns that arevaluable to the customer a possibility.

When cameras are placed in conjunction with digital signage criticalobjectives may be achieved. For example, compelling content displayed ondigital signage will draw the eyes of the audience, which is highlyimportant in achieving the desired recognition that the owner of thesignage wants to accomplish. This drastically increases the number ofpeople that look at the signage, even if only for a brief time. Anothercritical objective is achieved since the angle of attack is vastlysuperior with the camera being co-located with the signage. Both ofthese factors, taken together, increase the accuracy and the hit rate ofthe present systems in crowd scanning technology. While it is desirableto get a clean frontal face view, the present architecture need onlyacquire a portion of the face to determine an accurate match. Aprobability score is provided with each match, which allows anappropriate response to be actioned. Assuming good camera placement (inareas where traffic flow is constricted to a specific and defined path)the present system can scan hundreds of individuals very efficiently.This leverages a highly scalable local or cloud based database that ispopulated with basic biometric data of known persons.

It is to be understood that the proposed method and apparatus may beimplemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, specialpurpose processors, or a combination thereof. Special purpose processorsmay include application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), reducedinstruction set computers (RISCs) and/or field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs). Preferably, the proposed method and apparatus is implemented asa combination of hardware and software. Moreover, the software ispreferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied on aprogram storage device. The application program may be uploaded to, andexecuted by, a machine comprising any suitable architecture. Preferably,the machine is implemented on a computer platform having hardware suchas one or more central processing units (CPU), a random access memory(RAM), and input/output (I/O) interface(s). The computer platform alsoincludes an operating system and microinstruction code. The variousprocesses and functions described herein may either be part of themicroinstruction code or part of the application program (or acombination thereof), which is executed via the operating system. Inaddition, various other peripheral devices may be connected to thecomputer platform such as an additional data storage device and aprinting device.

It should be understood that the elements shown in the figures may beimplemented in various forms of hardware, software or combinationsthereof. Preferably, these elements are implemented in a combination ofhardware and software on one or more appropriately programmedgeneral-purpose devices, which may include a processor, memory andinput/output interfaces. Herein, the phrase "coupled" is defined to meandirectly connected to or indirectly connected with through one or moreintermediate components. Such intermediate components may include bothhardware and software based components.

It is to be further understood that, because some of the constituentsystem components and method steps depicted in the accompanying figuresare preferably implemented in software, the actual connections betweenthe system components (or the process steps) may differ depending uponthe manner in which the proposed method and apparatus is programmed.Given the teachings herein, one of ordinary skill in the related artwill be able to contemplate these and similar implementations orconfigurations of the proposed method and apparatus.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system that allows users to interact with apoint-of-sale device, comprising: an analytical environment that allowsusers to interact with the device through a network, the analyticalenvironment further comprising a processor configured to, delivercontent to a digital sign which will entice the user to engage thesystem in an environment in which the user can be visually tracked, mapthe user's physical attributes to determine a facial recognition of theuser and to identify the user, decompose facial recognition attributesof the user into a mesh of features and storing the mesh of features ofthe user, apply a demographic profile to the stored mesh features of theuser, and swap the content delivered to the digital sign withdemographically driven content which is relevant to further entice theuser to engage the system; a backend customization environment incommunication with the analytical environment further comprising aplurality of design modules for customizing and updating the system toprovide layouts and analytical facial recognition functions to bespecified by operators of the system; and a network interface incommunication with the analytical environment for communicating with thepoint-of-sale device and through which delivery of the content anddemographically drive content to the digital sign is accomplished. 2.The system recited in claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of designmodules comprises a content management design module for providingcustomized content to the operator of the system.
 3. The system recitedin claim 2, wherein one of the plurality of design modules comprises alayout design module for providing customized design layout of thesystem interfaces to the user for the operating of the system.
 4. Thesystem recited in claim 3, wherein one of the plurality of designmodules comprises a facial recognition portal for providing a designerof the system to interact with the analytical environment.
 5. The systemrecited in claim 4, wherein one of the plurality of design modulescomprises an interactive analytics module which allows a designer of thesystem to interact with the analytical environment to gather theanalytic information concerning the facial recognition attributes of theuser for the operator of the system.
 6. The system recited in claim 5,further comprising an interface that allows at least one application tocommunicate between the analytical environment and the user.
 7. Thesystem recited in claim 6, further comprising an interface that allowsat least one application to communicate between the backendcustomization environment and the analytical environment.
 8. The systemrecited in claim 7, wherein the device comprises a vending machine.